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I cannot believe that 2015 is now done and dusted. Doesn’t it seem that the older we get, the faster time goes? I really try my hardest to slow down and live in the moment but still, time just keeps flying by. We have been here in South Africa for over 2 years now. The first year we were really in transition mode; getting settled in a new country, making new friends, and me, starting a new job. The biggest change back in 2014 was that the Frenchie became the “trailing spouse” as he was not allowed to work while on my visa. 2015 saw us get back to a bit of normalcy in our lives. Late in 2014 the Frenchie was able to secure his own work permit and left his trailing spouse role for a paid position in the South African work force. Our household roles were redistributed and I found myself slaving away in the kitchen much more often (haha, not really, but we have started eating out a lot more lately).

When I look back at 2015, it seems I have been away more than I have been home. I haven’t added up the time, but I am sure it is not all that far off. I traveled quite a bit for business and pleasure and at times, there would be luggage from more than one trip lying on the bedroom floor waiting to be unpacked. I started to go back and look through my photos to remind me just what I have been up to this year and I thought it might be fun to post a recap of where I have been month by month. Some trips I have already blogged about and others not as I sometimes just didn’t have the time. Let’s have a look.

January 2015
The new year started off calmly enough. I didn’t have any trips outside of Joburg in January and that gave us a chance to spend some time in this fabulous city we are proud to call home. One of the reasons I love Joburg so much is due to its diversity. You can really find just about anything here. Two of the things we did in January I think illustrate this quite nicely: a visit to the Norscot Koppies Nature Reserve (a lovely reserve right in Joburg that I wrote about here in 2014) and a walk through Cyrildene, the new Chinatown of Joburg (you can see more photos from our first visit here).

This trip to Norscot was specifically to photograph this baby blesbok, isn’t he sweet?

Paris, I will always love you. I have loved you from the very first moment we met back in 1997, almost 18 long years ago. Sometimes it feels like just yesterday and most often it feels like a lifetime ago.

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I am still working on a few more safari posts but I thought I would take a quick break and share some photos from a work trip I took back to Nice, France a couple of weeks ago. Before moving to Johannesburg in 2013, I had been living in Nice for over 5 years (and Paris for 8). While we were preparing for landing, I was chatting to the South African couple next to me and they asked if I was going home. Without hesitation I answered that no, I live in South Africa. I paused a few seconds, and then I added, that well in fact, France used to be my home but now I call South Africa home. Regardless, it was fun to be back and even though most of the time I was working, I did have a bit of time to take advantage of the warm riviera sun. We were based in Cannes, and as it was not yet high season, the ambience on the coast was chilled and laidback.